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Léon Morel (Biographical details)

Léon Morel (archaeologist; official; French; Male; 1828 - 1909)

Also known as

Morel, Léon

Biography

Léon Morel was a French tax-collector, later Receiver of Finances, and also an amateur archaeologist. He undertook, or arranged, numerous excavations of Iron Age and Gallo-Roman sites and Merovingian cemeteries, mainly in the region of the River Marne in north-eastern France. The most notable of these were the chariot burial of Somme-Bionne and Frankish graves at Bréban and St-Loup. He formed a large and important private collection, augmented by purchases, which he gathered into a museum in Reims following his retirement in 1892. The British Museum purchased the major part of his collection in 1901, which comprises over 7,000 artefacts. The remainder of his collection appears to have been sold after his death in 1909 and is largely untraced.